Will Boyle has signed a new contract, how good is that news for the club?

It’s been well documented over the last two or three days and it’s very good news. I am really pleased. I said last Saturday, all the information everybody asked for, as to where we were at the time. When someone decides to stay at a club for two seasons it’s a big decision and he’s made, in the end, the right decision in my opinion. I tried to tell him that a couple of days earlier, but the whole thing has been very amicable as he’s ended up signing so we have a quality player for the next two years and we don’t have to worry about going out and finding a replacement, so that’s good. He’s had a really good second half to the season so he deserves his contract.

When you went public with the situation on Saturday, did you still think this could happen?

Yes, always. Sometimes people need a bit of time to reflect on what they are committing themselves to. The manager, and obviously before you make an offer you take time out to say, 'is this the best player we can get for the money we are paying? It is value for money?' And he’ll be thinking is this the right club for me to ply my trade for the next two years, so that extra 24 hours helped him get his head right and make the right decision for his future, which is what he’s done, so credit to him.

That gives you a spine for a team for next season and is it the sort of signing who can influence a few others?

Maybe not so much that, but we have worked very hard on Will, who came in when he was 20 or 21 and still young and immature as a centre-half is concerned, not as far as a bloke is concerned, but in terms of football and league games etc. We have already put that energy and workrate into him and he’s come out of it well. We didn’t want to waste all that energy. Downesy has done a lot of work with him, I have, Russ has, Tim Bell has done lots in terms of stats and showing him his individual games, picking out good and bad points. Gav Crowe has worked hard with him on his fitness and health, as has Ian Hutton. The only one who hasn’t done much for him probably is Booky, so I’ll have to have a word with him about that! We are pleased it’s done and we move on.

How much do you need a reaction from your players this Saturday at Cambridge?

We have a group who will never go out and not try. Their personalities are such that it would very difficult for them to go out and not try. I would see it quite early as well. But when you have an opposition who are in their situation and I tried to build it up as a play-off game as I wanted to see how some of our lads would have coped if it was a play-off game, or final. I learned a bit about two or three of them of course, but on the day both teams are trying to stop the opposition playing. Tactically we are trying to do things to them and they are trying to do things to us and sometimes you lose 1-0. I was as disappointed as everybody else, absolutely, but there are still positives to build on. I have mentioned it a couple of times, but we are in the top five in terms of goalscoring, so we know if we can keep the lads who are scoring goals and creating goals, we’ll be all right with that. We have to improve a bit on not conceding goals of course, which helps you when you are looking at who you are going to have to bring in and what you are going to have to do. Sometimes people watch Liverpool v Man United on a Friday and then watch a League Two game and sometimes it’s a bit different, with not as much quality, but all teams in League Two and League One, even in the Championship, have that inconsistency. We have to try and do a little bit more, which we have done on occasions and looked very good having done it. This level there is inconsistency from players, whether it’s due to lack of experience, or people not quite being able to do it, and then you have to move them on and bring people in who can. So we are generally building.

Billy Waters is on loan at Cambridge and it will be quite a big afternoon for him (against his old club)

Yes and everyone knows how hard we tried to keep Billy. Sometimes other clubs offer a little bit more and people decide to go to pastures new, which he did when he went to Northampton. It didn’t quite work out for him there and he’s ended up at the same level. We love Bill and it’s a shame that he left because he was a quiet sort of character, but a character around the place. It’s a shame he is now at the same level he was when he left us, so maybe he should have stayed?

Injuries, how’s the squad?

As you get nearer to the end of the season and players know they aren’t in our plans, which means your squad is slightly smaller in terms of numbers. That’s what happens and Fulham had asked to take back Elijah (Adebayo) to play in a couple of their reserve games or Under-23 games, which is what we allowed them to do as he wasn’t going to be in our first team. If they are not playing here we allow them to go back. Bristol City wanted to play Taylor this week so we allowed him to play a game there and that’s what happens with loans. Your numbers to deplete, with different reasons for players not being available, but that’s what I’ve had to deal with in the last 30 years of management.

You have Rhys Lovett signed up for another year too. Are you closer to deciding on the other players who are not sorted out yet?

I think so, yes. I haven’t had time to talk to everybody just yet, but I did well them a couple of days ago we’ll be having individual meetings sometime this week or next. Certainly before the end of the season to let everybody know where they stand. Rhys is a good signing and still very young to be a first team goalkeeper. But he is learning every day, getting stronger and growing in maturity. Goalkeepers mature later than players sometimes, but he has two great coaches in Booky and Flinders, who are both experienced people and it’s a great place for him to learn his trade.

Do you see Will Boyle as a future captain as he quite an organiser and a leader on the pitch?

Yes he is and everybody likes him. He doesn’t have a part of his personality that people don’t like. So you are happy to have him in your group and he’s one of the ‘in crowd’ as it were. Whether he is experienced enough yet at 22, to be captain, but he is certainly a future captain because when he is confident and playing well he gives the right information, which is what you need from the captain. Scott Flinders did it very well when he took it on for a game recently and you can tell they have taken it on in the dressing room as well as on the pitch. Winny has been a very good captain with his experience and if things are on edge in a game he will quieten down and calm down to avoid red and yellow cards and he’s been a very good captain. The captain you pick has to have the respect of everyone at the club, which includes everyone on and off the pitch.

Looking back at Saturday, are you confident you make the right decision with Will Boyle as you said he wasn’t quite there in terms of focus in training?

You don’t plan it that way, but it works that way. I believe I made the decision for the right reasons, that’s for sure. If we’d won the game I wouldn’t have had so much coming back at me. He needed 24 hours to get his mind right for his future and make his decision. While he was doing that I didn’t think it was quite right. He would probably feel he was okay, but if he’d played we might have lost 2-0. I have to make decisions before, rather than commenting afterwards as everybody else does.

It all started out for you at Cambridge, where you must have a lot of good memories

Fantastic memories. We had a great rise and ended up starting in the fourth division and getting to the second division, with two promotions. We then reached the play-offs for the first season of the Premier League, but we lost out to Leicester City over two legs, or we could have gone all the way. I was assistant to John Beck and we were two young coaches giving it a go. We managed to get a lot of free transfers at the time as we didn’t have much money at the time. A lot of them went on to become big players as well. We also had two FA Cup quarter-finals against Arsenal and Crystal Palace. It was a good few years for Cambridge and I always have a soft spot for them.

Did you live in Cambridge at the time?

I lived in Newmarket, just up the road, because it was important to go somewhere where most of the people walking up the high street were smaller than me!

How big an achievement is it for Accrington to win promotion from League Two?

It’s a fantastic one for them. I’ve had it a couple of times at Yeovil, when you look at the finances it shouldn’t have been possible. Cambridge was the same. I don’t think they are quite the paupers people say they are and they can use that a little bit, but credit to them because at the end of the day every club gets their moment of glory. It took Yeovil 108 years to get out of the Conference to get into the league. I wasn’t there all that time, was just there to get them promoted. Accrington have waited a long time and this is their year. You give them credit as they are a good team and John Coleman has gradually built the team, keeping a winning group for a little while. They were unlucky last year and this year they’ve made it. They don’t have many injuries and we’ll send our email out to congratulate them as any team who wins promotion has put in a massive effort.